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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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Splendid Inheritance. 



«£-- BY 

REV. S. F. HOTCHKIN, M. A., 



AUTHOR OP "THE MORNINGS OF THE BIBLE," [" EARLY CLERGY," 
"DARK CARE LIGHTENED," ETC. 



J UN 15 1895 ! 



PHILADELPHIA: ~ *l J / // '/ &^** 

GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO. * 

I03 SOUTH I5TH ST. 
1895. 



.Hi 



Copyright 
By Rev. S. F. Hotchkin 

1895. 



The Li> * * *? 



THE JOYS OF HEAVEN. 



4 * Sweetest strains, from soft hearts stealing ; 
Trumpets, notes of triumph pealing ; 
Radiant wings and white stoles gleaming, 
Up the steps of glory streaming ; 
Where the heavenly bells are ringing, 
Holy, holy, holy ! singing 

To the mighty Trinity ! 
Holy, holy, holy ! crying ; 
For all earthly care and sighing 

In that city cease to be !" 

" Every voice is there harmonious, 
Praising God in hymns S3'mphonious ; 
Love each heart with light enfolding, 
As they stand in peace beholding 
There the Triune Deity !" 

Thomas a Kempis. 



CHAPTER I. 



ST. PETER styles heaven an inherit- 
ance. The great business of the 
world is to amass, and hand down 
property. The father toils for the child, 
and the child rejoices in the father's lega- 
cies. Some estates have remained in one 
family for generations, and title-deeds, 
with ancient seals, are shown with pride 
to prove that goodly acres, hill and dale, 
park and meadow, have been under one 
name for centuries. 

How great is a king's heir. The palace 
is glorious ; fountains, statues, and 
paintings adorn it. Horses and carriages, 
men-servants and women-servants, and 
soldiers wait the nod of the Prince, the 
future king. 

But St. Peter was writing to a handful 
of poor persecuted and scattered Chris- 
tians. These comfortable words of hope 
cheered those in heaviness through the 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 5 

temptations of their own wicked hearts 
and the malice of foes. 

No certain dwelling-place, and no 
earthly inheritance was their portion, for 
houses and lands had been forsaken for 
Christ. Vineyards and olive yards and 
cattle and gold and silver were lacking. 

Knowing the many sacrifices of the 
early missionaries of the cross, the Apostle 
wrote to cheer them, and to raise their 
thoughts from earth to heaven hy a glance 
at the inheritance of the saints in light, 
where moth and rust and thieves were 
unknown. 

This inheritance is to be possessed by 
and by, if man complies with God's con- 
ditions. 

The young heir walks with pleasure 
over the domain soon to be his, marking 
its beauty, and planning changes. 

The Prince longs for the time when the 
crown shall press his brow, and he shall 
be acknowledged as ruler. 

The same vividness is here given to the 



6 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

hope of heaven. The believer is often to 
look on it, and behave himself so as to be a a 
child of God and an inheritor of the king- 
dom of heaven. " 

Onr Lord's warning is, " Let no man 
take thy crown." 

How few think of this glorions inherit- 
ance and fadeless crown. An earthly 
bauble draws their gaze, while they have 
no eye or ear for the things of heaven. 

In the East it w^as an ancient custom for 
sons to receive their portion in the inherit- 
ance while the father lived, as in the 
Prodigal Son's narrative. So God gives 
a part of His gift here on earth. 

The earthly father bestows a part of 
the inheritance to his children gladly in 
food and clothing, and education and sup- 
port. God sets the solitary in families, 
that mutual assistance may be rendered ; 
and as a rule the help goes downward, and 
the child returns the blessing to his own 
children ; and so the words and acts of 
fathers and mothers and grandparents 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 7 

bless the world and make it happy, and 
good men and women thus become tlie 
shadows and representatives of God. 

The family possessions are handed to 
the children and pass on to the next gener- 
ation ; and many an heirloom and relic, 
slight in intrinsic value, is invaluable 
by association and memory. 

In using these heritages, however, pub- 
lic as well as private benefit must be 
considered. No man " liveth to himself." 
On German roads, trees shelter the trav- 
eler from the sun, and yield their fallen 
fruit to refresh him. While we live, we 
should strive to make earth as like heaven 
as possible, and true living is holy and 
happy living. 

Doddridge makes this the true end of 
life in the following lines : 

11 • Live while you live/ the epicure would say, 
1 And seize the pleasures of the present day !' 

* Live while you live,' the sacred preacher cries, 
' And give to God each moment as it flies !' 

• Lord, in my views, let both united be — 
I live in pleasure, when I live to Thee !' ' 



8 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

There are too many who would convey 
sensual ideas of pleasure to heaven. Rabbi 
Mayemon said, that after the coming of 
the Messiah, and His raising the dead, 
that many affirmed that " they shall be 
gathered together in the garden of Eden, 
and shall eat and drink and satiate them- 
selves all the days of the world. There 
the houses shall be all builded with pre- 
cious stones ; the beds shall be made of 
silk, and the rivers shall flow with wine 
and spicy oil." 

Pleasures of sense fail here by excess, 
or the infirmity of age, and should not be 
expected in a higher state where the spirit 
is to rule. 

The highest earthly happiness is not in 
eating and drinking, which too often clog 
the soul if there is immoderate use. The 
lover of music, lost in glad song, is not 
thinking of his body. The artist Martin 
had to be forced away to his meals, as the 
mind had so overridden the body that the 
desire of food was temporarily lost. The 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 9 

worshiper of God, when in heavenly 
courts he is hearing the words of the Al- 
mighty and seeing visions of the Hea- 
venly Father and the Divine Son, through 
the Holy Spirit, thinks not of earthly 
nourishment or bodily adornment. The 
soul preparing for endless association 
with God and His holy angels must 
learn how to begin that life in earthly 
streets. 

Praise is the endless occupation of 
heaven. 

The following Olympic ode of Pindar 
(Strophe IV), translated by Dr. Gilbert 
West, gives a view of heaven as seen by a 
wise pagan : 

1 ' But in the happy Fields of Light 

Where Phoebus with an equal Ray 
Illuminates the balmy Night, 

And gilds the cloudless Day. 
In peaceful, unmolested joy, 
The Good their smiling Hours employ. 
Them no uneasy Wants constrain 

To vex th' ungrateful soil, 
To tempt the dangers of the billowy Main, 

And break their strength with unabating Toil, 



IO 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 



A frail disastrous Being to maintain, 
But in their joyous calm Abodes, 

The Recompence of Justice they receive ; 
And in the Fellowship of Gods 

Without a Tear eternal Ages live." 




CHAPTER II. 

THE INCORRUPTIBILITY OF HEAVEN. 

il No joy is true save that which hath no end; 
No life is true save that which liveth ever ; 
No health is sound, save that which God doth send ; 
No love is real save that which changeth never." 

4 ' Heaven's beauty is forever vernal ; 
Its glory is the glory of its King, 
Und3'ing, incorruptible, eternal ; 

And ever new the songs its dwellers sing." 

HORATIUS BONAR. 

The perfection of the heavenly inherit- 
ance is indicated by the word " incor< 
ruptible." Corruption destroys man's 
earthly possessions. He rises early and 
late takes rest, but vainly seeks enduring 
substance, and must ever renew his 
work His grain decays. His house is 
no sooner finished than it begins to waste 
away. The dearly loved body begins to 
die on the day of birth, and every breath 
and heart-beat hasten the end. We die 

ii 



12 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

daily. The mind and memory are en- 
feebled by age. The laughing child of 
yesterday is the wrinkled old man of to- 
morrow, as the swiftly flying years bear 
us rapidly through life's journey of a day. 
Still the setting sun lights up the window 
of the poorest cottage with golden lustre, 
and the sowing in corruption may be but 
the preparation of a glorious harvest of 
incorruption, where Christ shall clothe 
His own with immortality. As Lyte 
sings : 

1 i Change and decay in all around I see ; 
Oh ! Thou who changest not ; abide with me." 

Men might call gold imperishable as it 
shines on a king's crown, or rules com- 
merce. St. Peter boldly speaks of it as 
perishing, and asserts that a Christian's 
faith is far more valuable. In treating 
of the blood of Christ as compared with 
earthly treasure the Apostle shows his 
scorn of decaying earthly things by 
styling silver and gold corruptible things. 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 13 

Everything on earth is corruptible. The 
Hebrews took joyfully the spoiling of 
goods, which others defend with their 
lives, because they had in heaven a 
better and an enduring substance. So 
they laid up a good foundation for the 
coming time, making to themselves 
friends of the mammon of unrighteous- 
ness, that they might be received into 
everlasting habitations. 

A fable represents a king, expecting 
deposition, as sending his goods to an 
island where he could enjoy them when 
his kingdom failed him. This is a good 
picture of the wise Christian. 

St. Paul looked on the athletic races, 
and, taking up his parable, said that the 
garland of leaves reminded him of a 
better race, and more glorious crown, 
even an incorruptible one. The leaves 
on the victor's brow soon withered, and a 
new aspirant took the place of the con- 
queror, but the crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord would give to all those 



14 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

that loved His appearing, was a crown of 
life which would lose none of its brilliancy 
during eternal ages, and which could not 
be lost, for those who enter the city of 
God, and become kings and priests unto 
Him, go no more out forever. 

The new birth is of incorruptible 
seed, by the word of God, which liveth 
and abideth forever. While death over- 
comes those born as mortals, the new 
birth is the beginning of a deathless 
existence. 

The house made with hands is a de- 
caying fleshly tabernacle, the house of 
God, not made with hands, prepared by 
God for those that love Him, endureth 
forever. 

The body is sown in corruption. The 
much-loved form is laid in .the ground, 
which drinketh in the mourner's tears. 
But the promise is full and clear that the 
dead in Christ shall live again. 

Edward Rowland Sill's lines teach the 
bereaved ones how to leave the cemetery 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 15 

for the mournful journey home to the sad 
and silent house : 

" Yet, 'twill only be a sleep, 
When, with, songs and dewy light, 
Morning blossoms out of night ; 
She will open her blue eyes 
'Neath the palms of paradise 

While we foolish ones shall weep." 

God is incorruptible, and hence, idol- 
atry is foolish, as it makes images of cor- 
ruptible men and birds and beasts. An 
ox, that eateth hay, displaces the ever- 
living God, The Athenians bowed down 
to gods of gold, silver, and stone, graven 
by art; and now similar idols are in men's 
hearts, if not in their houses. The miser 
is an idolater, and worships a perishable 
thing, and his act is wicked. 

The " uneasy head " of a king teaches 
that power is not to be worshiped, and 
its intoxication of mind lifts men up 
against God. King Nebuchadnezzar 
gloats over the fine buildings of Babylon 
as his work, and puts down and sets up 
his dependents at his will, but the cor- 



l6 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 



ruptibility of station is seen when Go 
punishes him by sending him among the 
beasts, where no roof covered him ; and 
the dew came on his unprotected body. 

Evil and bloody monarchs have often 
proclaimed the fact by their acts that no 
human being is fit for arbitrary power, 
and the control of millions of lives. 

The stone coffin of an English king 
was used as a horse-trough. Courtiers 
quarrel over new positions before the 
body of a monarch is cold in death. 

Shirley's lines are true : 

" The glories of our birth and state 

Are shadows, not substantial things ; 
There is no armor against fate ; 

Death lays his icy hands on kings : 
Scepter and crown 
Must tumble down, 
And in the dust be equal made 
With the poor, crooked scythe and spade." 
* * * * - * * 

" Only the actions of the just 
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust." 

Good deeds are incorruptible, and lead 
heavenward. 



CHAPTER III 

THE PURITY OF HEAVEN. 

' ' Blest are the pure in heart. Wouldst thou be blest ? 
He'll cleanse thy spotted soul. Wouldst thou find rest ? 
Around thy toils and cares He'll breathe a calm, 
And to thy wounded spirit lay a balm ; 
From fear, draw love ! and teach thee where to seek 
Lost strength and grandeur — with the bowed and 

meek - ?> Richard H. Dana. 

Heaven is a place of purity. The 
throne of God is white. The robes of 
the redeemed are white and spotless. 
Heaven is " undefiled " — this word can 
hardly be applied to earthly things. 

The man seeking holiness is hindered 
by a thousand temptations of Satan on 
every side. 

The ground was cursed for man's sin, 
and thorns abound. 

" Man is very far gone from original 
righteousness, and is of his own nature 
inclined to evil." 

2 17 



1 8 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

The Majesty of Heaven is too often 
insulted by ribald songs, low jests, and 
profane oaths from mouths which should 
utter the praises of God. 

If one who loves and fears God walks 
the street, or rides in a public conveyance, 
or goes into a place of public concourse, 
how often is his ear pained and his heart 
grieved by language which might draw 
tears from the eyes of angels. Swearers 
clothe themselves with cursing as a gar- 
ment, and no one can approach them 
without beholding their clothing. 

If, in the silence of your room, you take 
up a favorite author, how much may you 
find that defiles rather than elevates. In 
the midst of much that is beautiful and 
brilliant, there is still something to shun 
and condemn. 

Our public prints contain much that 
reminds us that we dwell in a polluted 
land. Accounts of wars, and crimes com- 
mitted by nations, as well as individual 
sins, are paraded before the public eye, 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 19 

until the whole head is sick, and the 
whole heart is faint. Murders of un- 
paralleled atrocity, and thefts of wonder- 
ful magnitude, continually teach us that 
we do not dwell in an undefiled land. 

But, to come nearer home to our own 
households and social circles, who does 
not feel, after long intercourse with those 
about him, that while he can find much in 
them to love and respect, still imperfec- 
tions abound? 

When a man turns within, knowing his 
spirit as no one else but God knows it, 
how great an amount he finds of ill that 
makes him ready to cry, with St. Paul, 
■ l Who shall deliver me from the body of 
this death ?" Or, with a later saint, 
" Lord, deliver me from that bad man, 
myself!" 

This hard lesson is for our good. We 
are not innocent, and we dwell in a pol- 
luted land. He who warns us of our 
danger, and shows us a way of escape, is 
our true friend, and he who prophesies 



20 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

smooth things, and says, " This is your 
rest," is our greatest enemy. 

At a wayside fountain, where robbers 
prowled, a friendly inscription ran : 
" Drink and away;" so travelers heaven- 
ward must hasten on through the world's 
dangers. 

Every morning sun looks on shame- 
ful deeds, and every night conceals a thou- 
sand sins. 

The Scriptures teach that all men are 
sinners. A sad picture is in the begin- 
ning. Adam and Eve, in conscious guilt, 
leave Paradise ; Cain commits murder. 
For perfection, we must turn from man to 
the living God. Heaven alone is really 
pure, and " there is none good, save One, 
that is God." 

The ancient High Priest offered for his 
own sins ; the Son of God is " Holy, harm- 
less, undefiled, separate from sinners, and 
made higher than the heavens." 

Then, let us lift our eyes to this blessed 
Saviour, consecrated forevermore, and 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 21 

strive by His help to fit ourselves, through, 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to enter 
that blessed land into which nothing de- 
filing can come ; and let us place our hopes 
on that undefiled inheritance, rather than 
on earthly things stained with sin. 

When Beaumont and Fletcher use the 
expression, 

11 A soul as white as heaven," 

they describe what a future world may be- 
hold; but what this world lacks, by the con- 
fession of saints and martyrs themselves. 

However, heaven may be tasted here, as 
prayer opens its door, and airs from Para- 
dise refresh weary hearts. 

Love brings heaven down to earth, and 

individual and family love are exalted by 

the touch of Divine Love as Charles 

Wesley sings : 

11 Love divine, all love excelling, 
Joy of heaven, to earth come down." 

In Wordsworth's " Intimations of Im- 
mortality," we read : -" Heaven lies about 
us in our infancy I" 



22 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

Children, by their innocent smiles and 
loving words, draw parents upward. R. 
H. Stoddard, in "The Children's Prayer,'' 
paints their gnilelessness : 

" If there is anything that will endure 

The eye of God because it still is pure, 

It is the spirit of a little child, 

Fresh from His hand, and therefore undented. 

Nearer the gate of Paradise than we, 

Our children breathe its airs, its angels see; 

And when they pray, God hears their simple prayer." 

Though the poet's fancy here repre- 
sents spotlessness, children have evil 
thoughts, and are not yet arrived at the 
state which heaven presents, though they 
are nearer it than men and women who 
have passed through more temptations 
and trials ; and the Redeemer bids us to 
imitate their simplicity if we would enter 
Paradise. 

The warning to the Corinthians not to 
defile their bodies, because they were 
God's temple and Christ's members, gives 
a high standard of Christian living. 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 23 

Pure hands and a pure heart are needed 
to see God. Evil companions and im- 
proper books draw men away from God. 
The purging with hyssop, or rather the 
cleansing of Christ's blood, makes clean, 
so that the sanctified may ascend the hill 
of the Lord, and rise up in His holy place, 
to hold fellowship with angels clad in 
white, and with God Himself. The bride, 
the church of Christ, is " arrayed in fine 
linen, clean and white ; for the fine linen 
is the righteousness of saints. " The 
garments of " priests and Levites in the 
Jewish temple services were undoubtedly 
white." The white surplice, whether from 
Jewish usage, or the ordinary dress of 
antiquity, is a symbol of purity. (Rev. 
Dr. H. C. McCook's Gospel in Nature, 
Snow Purity, p. 160 ; and Dean Stanley's 
Christian Institutions, chap. 8, p. 178.) 

Such garments, and a corresponding 
inner life, should bring clergy and people 
to the use of " a pure language," which 
Zephaniah 3 : 9 describes in worship, 



24 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

" that tliey may all call upon the name of 
the Lord, to serve Him with one consent." 
As Keble expresses it : 

" He shall descend, who rules above, 
And the pure language of His love 
All tongues of men shall tune." 

The white robes of Holy Baptism and 
Confirmation and Marriage are the feeble 
attempts of earth to show that she half 
understands the symbols of heaven ; and 
is trying to learn her lesson, even if it is 
imperfectly comprehended, by reason of 
surrounding moral darkness, which clouds 
the spiritual eye. If this poor, imperfect 
worship is glorious, how will the future 
glory excel it, according to Spenser's 
lines : 

1 1 What wonder, 
Frail men, whose eyes seek heavenly things to see, 
At sight thereof so much enravished be ?" 




CHAPTER IV. 

HEAVEN UNFADING. 

11 Eye hath not seen it, my gentle boy : 
Ear hath not heard its deep song of joy ! 
Dreams cannot picture a world so fair ; 
Sorrow and death may not enter there ; 
Time doth not breathe on its fadeless bloom ; 
For beyond the clouds, and beyond the tomb, 
It is there, it is there, my child !" 

Mrs. Hemans. 

A flower is beautiful on its stem, as the 
parent stalk sends the life blood through 
it, and it blushes in redness, or smiles in 
whiteness, or bears a more reflective hue 
in a purple shade, while its green frame- 
work makes a noble setting to the picture. 
But he who plucks the flower has killed 
it ; and soon its colors have faded, and it 
is tossed aside. Here is a vivid represen- 
tation of all earthly things, but the vol- 
ume of Inspiration says of heaven, that 
it " fadeth not away." An unfading 

25 



26 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

flower would indeed be a valuable posses- 
sion, and, if hosts of men at great expense 
serve the world with these passing glories, 
let the wise man seek an everlasting lustre. 

St. James looked on the fading grass 
and wrote, " The sun is no sooner risen 
with a burning heat, but it withereth the 
grass, and the flower thereof falleth, and 
the grace of the fashion of it perisheth : 
so also shall the rich man fade away in 
his ways." 

What image could more forcibly por- 
tray the fleeting nature of earthly things ? 
Who that is wise would place his hopes on 
those things which perish so rapidly ? 
Every year this scene passes before our 
sight ; does it leave St. James's lesson on 
the mind? In spring nature decks her- 
self in new array, and every leaf and 
plant receives a new life, but in a few 
days the parching heat dries up the vege- 
tation, and it passes away, never to be 
seen again. Reader, are you trusting to 
hopes as uncertain as the grass of the 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 27 

field, which to-day is, and to-morrow is 
cast into the oven ? 

But the fading grass only conforms to 
nature's common law. All things pass 
awav. 

mi 

A goodly city may be destroyed by a 
falling spark of fire. The man who is 
to-day a beggar was yesterday a million- 
aire. Riches take to themselves wings 
and fly away. Suppose one were to bring 
a bird of Paradise from India with great 
care, having invested his little all in it, 
and just when he had been offered a large 
price for it, should see it escape from his 
hands and be lost in mid-air. Such is the 
man who strives to hold the world ; it 
eludes his grasp and leaves an empty 
hand ; as a great ruler ordered his body 
to be buried with open hands, that his 
people could see that he could carry noth- 
ing with him into another world. 

Cerates flung his gold into the sea, with 
the words, " I will destroy thee, lest thou 
destroy me." 



20 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

Many a man would have been happier 
and better, and had more hope of heaven, 
if he had imitated his example. 

Honor is a fleeting breath, a moment 
here, then gone forever. Men cried, " Ho- 
sannah," to our Lord, and in a few hours 
the mad cry, " Crucify Him," took its 
place. 

Friends are fading. Parents weep over 
sweet infant faces cold in death, and chil- 
dren gently bear loved parents to the 
tomb. 

But there are imperishable things. The 
crown of glory " fadeth not away." 

Then thought should rise above visible, 
temporal things to unseen and eternal 
realities, as alone worthy of pursuit. 

Men who call lands after their names 
are building on sand, and our Lord warns 
them to escape the power of the beating 
storm by selecting a firm, rocky founda- 
tion. 

Affections are to be set on things above, 
and treasure to be laid up in heaven. 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 29 

Then the loss of corruptible things can 
be calmly met ; for if the fashion of this 
world passeth away, the eternal world will 
soon be ours. 

Horace compares the succeeding heirs 
of men to the waves that stir the water. 
Stand on the seashore, and listen to the 
constant mournful splash of the breakers. 
One has hardly finished its uneasy jour- 
ney, and lost itself in the sand, before 
another is at its heels ; and so like racing 
steeds they rush to destruction. Thus 
by day and night for centuries the song 
of life and death is repeated. So man 
lives his momentary life, and his suc- 
cessor takes his place. 

When a man dies, how quickfy the past 
tense is used. That " was " his horse and 
carriage, and that " was " his house, but 
his driving and building are over. Where 
is he now ? His earthly life must answer 
the query, and how blessed when it can be 
said that the fading earthly inheritance 
has been succeeded by the eternal and 
heavenly one. 



3<3 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

Increased riches make troubled hearts, 
and slaves to wealth. If the holder of 
real estate saw his ground washed away 
by the sea, or swallowed by the earth- 
quake, he would realize his loss. But 
speculation, or dissipation, or neglect, 
may remove property as if by the en- 
chanter's wand. Diggers for hid treasure 
have imagined it in their hand, and then 
it has apparently suddenly vanished ; in 
like manner riches have really disap- 
peared. 

Sometimes a curse seems to have hung 
over ill-gotten gains, as church property 
wrongly taken from the church by false 
government officers, and bestowed on those 
who had no real right to God's property, 
has been thought to injure the holder. 

Special temptations surround wealth, 
and often make the owner of it miserable, 
as he fears its loss or is defrauded of his 
rights in ways beyond his control. 

Position is a fading honor. The king 
is crowned with the rising of the sun. 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 3 1 

The armor of the soldiers shines brightly. 
Martial music stirs the air. The bells 
peal merrily, and the people huzza, and 
ory " God save the King !" The same 
sun is sinking gently to his rest, and a 
loud cry is heard, "The King is dead.'' 
Listen to the tolling bells and behold the 
crape that betokens sorrow. Another 
shout breaks the air : " The King lives I" 
and a successor has taken up the honor 
and pain and danger of sovereignty. " The 
King never dies " in the legal fiction, but 
the earthly king's breath is in his nos- 
trils, and he is crushed by the moth, 
and his house of clay breaks in pieces 
like that of the peasant. 

The attempt of parents to secure an 
inheritance for their children often fails 
in an earthly sense by the death of the 
children before the parents. Millions of 
dollars are spent in monuments which 
adorn beautiful cemeteries where mourn- 
ing parents strive to keep up the memory 
of these departed ones. Were it not 



32 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

better in churches and orphan asylums 
and schools to assist other little ones on 
their path to heaven, spending what 
would have been needed to support the 
dead child in alms ? I knew an ex- 
cellent wife of a good clergyman who 
gave an annual contribution to missions 
in memory of a son who died in early 
youth. This is a praiseworthy example. 
A worthy way to remember a dead child 
is to imitate its innocent life, so that the 
family broken on earth may be reunited 
in heaven. 

The best inheritance that a parent can 
give a child is religious teaching, forti- 
fied by a shining example of holiness. 

The earthly property, acquired by toil 
and pain, may prove a curse if the heir 
has not been trained to property use it ; 
the heavenly property can but result in 
endless blessing. 

Old and 3 7 oung can echo the beautiful 
words of C. F. Alexander's poem on the 
" u Bliss of Earth and Heaven :" 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

' ' The roseate hues of early dawn, 

The brightness of the day, 
The crimson of the sunset sky, 

How fast they fade away ! 
Oh ! for the pearly gates of heaven ! 

Oh ! for the golden floor ! 
Oh ! for the Sun of Righteousness 

That setteth nevermore ! 

" The highest hopes we cherish here 5 

How fast they tire and faint ! 
How many a spot defiles the robe 

That wraps an earthl}~ saint ! 
Oh ! for a heart that never sins ! 

Oh ! for a soul washed white ! 
Oh ! for a voice to praise our King, 

Nor weary day or night ! 

" Here faith is ours, and heavenly hope, 

And grace to lead us higher ; 
But there are perfectness and peace 

Beyond our best desire. 
Oh ! by Thy love and anguish, Lord ! 

Oh ! by Thy life laid down ! 
Oh ! that we fall not from Thy grace, 

Nor cast away Thy crown !" 




CHAPTER V. 

heaven's surprises. 

When Horatius Bonar saw the magnifi- 
cence of the London Exhibition at the 
World's Fair, in A. D. 1851, a thought 
of higher glory above entered the de- 
vout mind of this gifted elegy man, and 
prompted a beautiful poem, from which 
we quote a small portion : 

" What to that for which we're waiting 

Is this glittering earthly toy ? 
Heavenly glory, holy splendor, 

Sum of grandeur, sum of joy. 
Not the gems that time can tarnish, 

Not the hues that dim and die, 
Not the glow that cheats the lover, 

Shaded with mortality. 
Heir of glory, 

That shall be for thee and me. 

" Soon where earthly beauty blinds not, 

No excess of brilliance palls, 
Salem, city of the holy, 

We shall be within thy walls ! 
There, beside yon crystal river, 

There, beneath life's wondrous tree, 

34 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 35 

There, with naught to cloud or sever, 
Ever with the Lamb to be ! 

Heir of glory, 
That shall be for thee and me ! 



When the wondrous White City lay on 
the shore of Lake Michigan a vast mass 
of humanity from the corners of the earth 
rushed through it, glancing in bewilder- 
ment for a few days at inventions and dis- 
plays of nature and art which would repay 
years of study. A few months passed, 
and the goodly vision on land and water 
faded as a dream. 

This is a picture of life, and the more 
glorious it is the more does the gazer miss 
its departure. Heaven is a place where 
glory ever abides, and the pictures do not 
vanish. 

Earth is full of glad surprises. Christ- 
mas draws near. See the whispered con- 
ferences of kind parents, and the stealthy 
returns from the city at evening with mys- 
terious packages, locked into a room, or 
shut up in a closet, and soon you will 



36 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

hear glad shouts on the birthday of Christ, 
in the dawn of the morning, indicating 
that the Christmas tree has borne precious 
and acceptable fruit, and old as well as 
young are made glad by the presents 
which have been procured at the cost of 
care, and sometimes of self-denial. 

Larger gifts may come in like manner. 
I knew a case where a gentleman bought 
a splendid house on a high hill, command- 
ing a beautiful view, and then ushered his 
wife into it before she knew it was to be 
their home. 

In St. Peter's first epistle, i : 4, the 
heavenly inheritance is described as " re- 
served." 

When a will is read each heir listens at- 
tentively to know what his portion will be, 
and at once, on hearing his legacy, plans 
how to enjoy it. The Word of God is 
the will of our Heavenly Father be- 
queathing to us needful and lasting good 
things. 

Jesus, our Elder Brother, went to heaven 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 37 

to prepare a place for us, and to receive us 
there when life's storms are over. 

The poor dweller in Europe sees in im- 
agination an earthly Paradise on Ameri- 
can soil. Frequent letters from emigrants, 
and intercourse with those who have trod 
these favored shores, induce him to sell 
his little possessions, and start on a 
dangerous voyage. But sometimes wife 
and children must be left behind. How 
eagerly they await the letter which as- 
sures them that a place is reserved for 
them, and how readily the}' sail over the 
broad sea to embrace once more the parent 
and father. 

When the French steamer u la Gas- 
ccgne" reached the wharf in Xew York, 
after a voyage of danger and delay, with 
icy rigging, the shore was lined with those 
who rushed to look on her, and the smiles 
and tears and kisses of passengers, and 
those who came to welcome them, as alive 
from the dead, was such a sight as per- 
haps the great city never witnessed on 
any other occasion. 



38 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

The joy of the father of the Prodigal, 
and the Shepherd, and the woman with 
her coin, was that of the finder of the 
lost, and surprise forms a large element 
of the narratives drawn by the Divine 
hand of Christ. 

When a poor soul enters Paradise, the 
surprise that life's hard struggle is over 
must constitute much of the joy. 

No more toiling for bread; no more 
heartaches, or misunderstandings with 
friends, or disappointments, or falls into 
sin, or painful sickness, or agonizing 
death. The fetters are knocked off. The 
slave is free. The song of liberty rises 
high and strong to that Blessed Lord 
who has loved and redeemed His people 
and brought them to glory ; and the 
thought of the eternity of the happiness 
is indeed ravishing. A pleasant walk or 
ride or journey with a friend, or the en- 
joyment of music or painting or read- 
ing is ever disturbed here below by the 
thought that it is fleeting, and the joy of 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 39 

to-day is to be followed by the toil of to- 
morrow ; and social intercourse with 
beloved ones is embittered by the pros- 
pect of separation by absence or death. 
No friend leaves heaven, and the reunited 
ones bask in God's smile forever ; and, it 
may be, talk of the trials on the earthly 
journey, as travelers love to rehearse 
dangers overcome, or business men 
delight to recount the hard struggles 
which brought them success. The Lord's 
leadings are pleasant in retrospect, even 
on earth — how much more in heaven. 

Reservation is the rule of life. A child 
may not control an estate until the age 
of majority. Parents and guardians over- 
see it, but it is the more appreciated when 
obtained. 

One's own mind is ever stimulated by 
the hope of something better in reserve. 
Every acquisition in learning opens the 
door for another advance. The alphabet 
prompts the child to read, and then all 
stores of learning lie open. One truth 



40 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

has been well styled the John the Baptist 
of another ; and the higher the develop- 
ment of the mind, the greater is this 
grasping forward. 

He who acquires some property, stimu- 
lates a desire for more, and a farm 
encourages the wish for the adjoining 
one ; and the man with a million dollars 
is more madly set on securing a second 
million than he was in obtaining the 
first. 

Human desires grow with every suc- 
cess, and yet are ever disappointed, be- 
cause the husks that feed swine will not 
satisfy immortal beings. The very dis- 
appointment of the artist or poet, or even 
the seeker after religious truth, is no 
doubtful prophecy of a higher state, where 
the aspiring soul will truly know God, 
and be known of Him. This eternal life 
begins in the knowledge of Jesus Christ 
as God here, and is perfected in a fuller 
knowledge hereafter. The stream that 
makes glad the city of God here, is a rill 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 4 1 

compared with the river of Paradise. 
The earthly gold is dimmed by age or 
drops from the hand of its possessor. 
" The gold of that land is good " and last- 
ing. Animal joys exhaust themselves 
and fail; spiritual joys only increase by 
use. The cruse of oil and the barrel of 
meal fail not. The heavenly manna ever 
falls, and the loaves and fishes are ever 
reproduced by Him who is the Bread of 
Heaven. 

Hidden things are much desired. 
Mystery and secrecy impel every thought- 
ful mind to action. Half-revealed secrets 
stir eager curiosity to find out the rest. 
The Saviour told a part of the coming 
glory, and concealed the rest, as men 
were not able to bear it. St. Paul could 
not describe the glories of his heavenly 
vision, for earth's inhabitants cannot 
comprehend the new Jerusalem above 
until they behold it, and with enlarged 
faculties enjoy it. It is impossible to de- 
scribe the grandeur of a great city to a 



42 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 



child just learning to talk and think ; how 
much more must mortals fail in reading 
the life of immortals. It is needful to 
wait for the hereafter before the reserva- 
tion can be made the appropriation. 

Meantime let us strive after a likeness 
of heaven on earth. In Wordsworth's 
poem " To a Skylark," " heaven and 
home " are styled " kindred points," and 
homes here should be made to resemble 
heaven. 




CHAPTER VI. 

PERSONALTY IN HEAVEN. 

' ' Thus while the mute creation downward bend 
Their sight, and to their earthly mother tend, 
Man looks aloft, and with erected eyes 
Beholds his own hereditary skies." 

Dryden. 

The English poet expresses an ancient 
idea that the raising of the sublime coun- 
tenance of man toward heaven is a look- 
ing after the Father in Heaven, " His 
own hereditary skies " implies personal 
possession. 

Luther said there was much theology 
in pronouns, and St. Peter's declaration 
concerning heaven is " reserved for you." 

There is some difference as to whether 
some one else is cold, hungry, sick, or 
dying, or you yourself. The legacy of 
another man may not affect you. The 
accident which sent another man with 
broken limbs and bleeding body to the 

43 



44 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

hospital draws a passing word of sym- 
pathy from you, as you greet your family, 
and sit down to a comfortable meal by a 
cheerful fire. Suppose you had been in 
the ambulance, and a telegram had called 
your family to your suffering couch, how 
different would have been the scene ! 

Every man desires heaven, but what is 
he doing to gain it ? Many seem to ex- 
pect it by proxy, and wife and children 
are to open the door for them. 

Wars of succession have caused seas 
of human blood to flow. Pretenders or 
rightful heirs have struggled for years to 
secure a throne, and too often obtained it 
by murdering their own relatives, and by 
deceit and treachery. 

Tamerlane watches the ant bearing its 
burden in the ruined house where he is 
concealed as a fugitive, and beholds its 
success, after sixty-nine failures, and is 
encouraged to make a new trial for 
power. 

Bruce, in the barn where he is hid for 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 45 

safety from foes, sees the industrious 
spider twelve times fail in endeavoring to 
ascend the beam, and rejoice in success 
the thirteenth time. He has been defeated 
twelve times, and now with new resolve 
tries the thirteenth time and victory is on 
his banner. 

These men believed that they must 
have the kingdom, and would not despair. 

Have you tried as hardly to obtain a 
secure kingdom and a lasting crown ? 
The kingdom of heaven is taken by 
violence, but many seem to think that 
hand or foot need not be lifted, some 
favorable breeze will waft them within it. 

My friend ! let me look into your eye 
for a moment, and in quiet ask you ear- 
nestly a few most important questions. 
When you rose this morning what did 
you think about ? You reply, your food 
and business, your oxen and lands, your 
stocks and bonds, your approaching mar- 
riage, or, if you are a man advanced in 
age, the schooling and settlement of your 



46 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

children, or the journey you were to take 
with your loving wife. 

But were these thoughts earthly ? Was 
the day made holy by the sweet incense 
of prayer rising from your own apart- 
ment, and the family altar ? The rising 
sun threw its glorious splendor into your 
room, and opened your eyelids; did a 
thought of the Sun of Righteousness 
illumine your heart and did your mind 
run forward to the final Resurrection 
morning, when the true and endless day 
should dawn ? 

Is it the morning of the blessed Lord's 
Day ? How are you going to spend it ? 
Is an excursion of so-called pleasure to 
keep you from the rich, undying joys of 
worship in the Lord's house, or are you 
preparing, with a grateful heart, to par- 
take of the broken Body and shed Blood 
of our Lord and Master in the Sacred 
Feast ordained by Him as a pledge and 
foretaste of heavenly bliss and higher 
communion with Christ above ? Are you 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 47 

intending in an animal way to idle these 
sacred hours at home ? 

Is heaven a reality to you, like that of 
a proposed European sojourn? Are you 
cultivating its spirit in peace, righteous- 
ness, and joy in the Holy Ghost? If 
you are to travel, you study your destina- 
tion, and the cost and mode of reaching it. 
If you saw a man foodless and penniless 
asserting that he was bound for London 
or San Francisco you would call him in- 
sane. You are bound on a longer j ourney , 
which needs more preparation. You would 
learn the language and customs of a for- 
eign land where you were to dwell, will 
you pay less attention to your desired 
everlasting home ? If you wash to be a 
fellow-citizen with saints above, learn 
saints' language here below. 

11 Those heavenly gates forever bar pollution, sin, and 
shame.' 7 

Could a crowd be stopped in a busy city 
street, and asked their objects of pursuit, 



48 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

on a Monday morning, when the week's 
business begins, what varied answers 
would result. Try them again the fol- 
lowing Monday, and it would be found 
that a few days had swept away the old 
air castles, and new ones had been built, 
to perish in like manner. 

How different the Christian's hopes and 
aims which enter within the veil, and rest 
on God. To him the service in the church 
makes it, as Watts's divine song has it, 

u Like a little heaven below." 

Each earthly wind is what the heavenly- 
minded Cowper calls 

" The breath of heaven." 

The aspiring heart sees heavenly gems 
in the stars, the train of the silver moon, 
and God is remembered in His works as 
the centre of heaven. " Whom have I in 
heaven but Thee," cries the devout soul, 
" and there is none upon earth that I de- 
sire in comparison with Thee." 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 49 

A bright summer day is in truth, a 
heavenly day to a devout spirit, as it re- 
joices with Nature in God. 

' ' Heaven 
Is as the book of God before thee set, 
Wherein to read His wondrous works." 

—Milton : Paradise Lost, VIII, 67. 

Shakespeare's beautiful expression for 
the stars, 

" Patines of bright gold " 

has drawn admiration ; but gold pales 
before their distant brilliancy. 
Bryant says of the Apennines, 

" Fair as the hills of Paradise they rise." 

When poets would seek to elevate earth, 
they naturally turn to heaven for figures ; 
and Sinai, as the Mount of the Law, and 
Tabor, that of the Transfiguration, and 
Zion, as the seat of the temple, raise the 
thought heavenward. Every mountain, 
elevated above the toil and dust of the 
work-day world, is a glimpse of heaven. 
Even clouds are beneath the feet as 



50 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

one gazes skyward, while the whiter 
clouds of the upper air seem like the 
pure abode of angels. 

All earthly comparisons fail to portray 
heaven's glory ; and all earthly prepara- 
tions are as nothing to that revelation that 
awaits " the dead in Christ." One who, 
after having toiled long years as a leader 
in the Church of Christ— Rev. Dr. B. B. 
Hotchkin, who has finished his labors 
and exchanged earth for Paradise, thus 
aspired after his true home : 

" O sing of the world where alone there is home, 
Of the household band that is over the flood, 
Where at length the child to the parent has come, 
To repose by the banks of the River of God."' 




CHAPTER VII. 

FAITH. 

God's power guarding His people 
" through, faith unto salvation ready to be 
revealed in the last time," I St. Peter i : 5. 

1 ' This world is all a fleeting show, 
For man's illusion given ; 
The smiles of joy, the tears of woe, 
Deceitful shine, deceitful flow — 

There's nothing true but Heaven !" 

Moore. 

Macknight explains the word " kept " 
or guarded in St. Peter's cheerful promise 
as representing " believers, as attacked by 
evil spirits and wicked men, their ene- 
mies, but defended against their attacks 
by the power of God, through the in- 
fluence of their faith, just as those who 
remain in an impregnable fortress are 
secured from the attacks of their enemies 
by its ramparts and walls." 

Faith is the hand which accepts God's 

5 1 



52 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

guardianship, and clings to Him for 
aid. 

In prayer, God lias been likened to the 
firm-set shore, to which men in a boat 
pull, and find its firmness their hope. 
God changeth not, but men must change 
from evil to good, to draw near to Him. 

If we are striving to be pure, as Christ 
is pure, we can calmly look on a defiled 
world as a tarrying place, on the way to 
" fairer worlds on high." 

If we seek the unfading glorious crown, 
to be given by Christ to those who love 
His appearing, and await His kingdom, 
the thousand changes and chances of the 
world need not unduly affect us. The 
city with foundations is in expectation. 

Riches or poverty, applause or con- 
tempt, sickness or health, will be as noth- 
ing, when compared to the glory to be 
revealed. 

Are we waiting in eager hope for that 
time when this corruption shall put on 
incorruption, and this mortal shall put on 
immortality; or are we settling ourselves 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 53 

down in contentment in the midst of these 
decaying things ? 

He who trusts in the world is no safer 
than was the inhabitant of wicked Sodom, 
when he laid himself down to rest, 
expecting a happy morning, and never 
again opened his eyes on earth. 

If we are living as the children of God, 
let us ever look for that rest which re- 
maineth for the people of God. Let the 
blissful hope of gaining it cheer the 
darkest day of life, and shed sunshine 
over all our path. 

If we find in our hearts no daily 
thoughts of God, and no daily hopes of 
heaven, let us fear lest we come short of 
that rest. Let us awake from our 
deathly sleep, and shake off the fetters of 
Satan, and open our eyes, that we may 
see the vanity of all the perishable things 
that surround us, and the unspeakable 
glory of the pleasures which are at God's 
right hand; and with deep repentance, 
and earnest faith in that blessed Saviour, 



54 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

who alone can open to us " the gate of 
everlasting life," let us with firm purpose 
of heart, seek after that inheritance which 
is " incorruptible and undefiled, and that 
fadeth not away," that our names may be 
written in heaven. 

Earth's sorrows vanish before such a 
hope, and the saints who have taught the 
way heavenward, give encouragement 
that we may join their blessed company. 

In the Tyrolese mountains, women and 
children sing national songs, until the 
voices of fathers, husbands, and brothers 
answer from the hills, as they return 
home, in the evening ; thus earth answers 
heaven, as with angel and archangel we 
praise God on earth, and heavenly 
thoughts break earth's dullness. 

Lowell, in " The Vision of Sir Laun- 
fal," writes : 

" 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 
'Tis only God may be had for the asking.' ' 

Will not poor man seek to enter those 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 55 

" ever during gates/' as Milton styles 
them, which open wide, with " harmonious 
sound," "on golden hinges moving'? 

Men toil in the dusty mine and on the 
dangerous sea and in the field and the 
marts of commerce for fleeting gold ; but 
here is true and lasting riches. 

Life wastes in toil ; and the boy who 
found heaven near as he lisped his infant 
prayer at his mother's knee, now holds 
earth before his eyes to cast a dark shade 
on its glory. But a paper wall divides 
from death. To-morrow's sun may look 
on a dead body, while to-day it beholds 
one living and active. Young's " Night 
Thoughts " contain this note of warn- 
ing: 

* * While man is growing, life is in decrease, 
And cradles rock us nearer to the tomb, 
Our birth is nothing but our death begun. " 

The infant's death is an admission to 
Paradise. Coleridge wrote this epitaph 
on an infant : 



56 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

" Ere sin could blight or sorrow fade, 
Death came with friendly care ; 
The opening bud to heaven conveyed, 
And bade it blossom there." 

The bliss of young life is exchanged 
for the greater bliss of heaven. 

The spires of churches pointing heaven- 
ward silently raise the mind to that 
blessed land. 

The influence of the Holy Spirit, and 
the beckonings of conscience, would move 
us to secure the heavenly inheritance. 

To those who wait for it, these anony- 
mous lines are full of meaning : 

" So I am watching quietly, 
Every day ; 
Whenever the sun shines brightly 

I rise and say, — 
* Sunlight is the shining of His face/ 
And look into the gates of His high place, 

Beyond the sea ; 
For I know He is coming shortly 
To summon me. 

" And when a shadow falls across the window 
Of my room, 
Where I am working my appointed task, 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 57 

I lift my head to watch the door and ask 

If He is come. 
And the angel answers sweetly 

In my home, 
' Onl}' a few more shadows, 

And He will come.' " 

Christ was very near to such a waiting 
soul. 

Warren Hastings, before he was ten 
years old, formed the purpose of pur- 
chasing back his ancestral estate, " Dayles- 
ford." The dream on a summer's da}^ as 
he lay beside the stream which bordered 
his native village, became a reality in after 
years ; but the earthly inheritance must 
be given up at death ; many are laboring 
for a better country, even a heavenly 
one. 

A saintly woman who had, in the duties 
of a clergyman's wife, lifted many a sor- 
rowing heart, died of a painful and lin- 
gering illness. On the inside of the cover 
of her Bible were fastened these selected 
verses : 



58 A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 

"I'm kneeling at the threshold, weary, faint and 

sore, 
Waiting for the dawning, for the opening of the 

door ; 
Waiting till the Master shall bid me rise and 

come, 
To the glory of His presence, to the gladness of 

His home. 

"A weary path I've traveled, 'mid darkness, storm, 

and strife ; 
Bearing many a burden, struggling for my life ; 
But now the morn is breaking, my toil will soon 

be o'er, 
I'm kneeling at the threshold, my hand is on the 

door. 

" Methinks I hear the voices of the blessed, as they 
stand, 
Singing in the sunshine of the sinless land ; 
O would that I were with them, amid their shining 

throng, 
Mingling in their worship, joining in their song. 

i ' The friends that started with me have entered long 

ago, 
One by one they left me, struggling with the foe ; 
Their pilgrimage was shorter, their triumph sooner 

won, 
How lovingly they'll hail me when my toil is 

done ! 



A SPLENDID INHERITANCE. 59 

" With them the blessed angels, that know no grief 

or sin, 
I see them by the portals, prepared to let me in, 
O Lord, I wait Thy pleasure, Thy time and way are 

best; 
But I am wasted, worn and weary, 
O Father, bid me rest." 

" These are they which came out of 
great tribulation, and have washed their 
robes, and made them white in the blood 
of the Lamb. 

''Therefore are they before the throne 
of God, and serve Him day and night in 
His temple ; and He that sitteth on the 
throne shall dwell among them. 

" They shall hunger no more, neither 
thirst any more ; neither shall the sun 
light on them, nor any heat. 

" For the Lamb which is in the midst 

of the throne shall feed them, and shall 

lead them unto the living fountains of 

waters ; and God shall wipe away all tears 

from their eyes." 

Revelation viz: 14-17* 



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and the figure of the tiny hero of the story. The outside of 
the book is quite attractive enough to warrant its ready sale, 
and in no sense does the cover belie the story. Written as 
Dr. Mitchell knows so well how to write, the story of the 
encounter of the two children, Hugh and Alice, with Kris 
Kringle at night, is graphically told. The illustrations are 
exceptionally pleasing." — Boston Times. 



"'Mr. Kris Kringle' is by that famous author, S. Weir 
Mitchell, whose writings stand at the front of literary produc- 
tions. It is a charming book for children, and is extremely 
sweet and entertaining, and will please not only the children, 
but the older folks as well." — Burlington Hawkeye. 



Sent postpaid on receipt of price by the publishers, 

GEORGE W. JACOBS & CO., 

103 S. Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: August 2005 

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